Induced solitons formed by cross polarization coupling in a birefringent cavity fiber laser

TL;DR

This paper experimentally demonstrates the formation of induced vector solitons in a birefringent fiber laser, showing how cross polarization coupling leads to soliton induction with specific wavelength and velocity characteristics.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of induced solitons due to cross polarization coupling in a birefringent fiber laser, supported by numerical simulations.

Findings

Induced solitons form along the orthogonal polarization axis.

Induced solitons can have the same or different wavelengths as the inducing soliton.

Induced and inducing solitons share the same group velocity.

Abstract

We report on the experimental observation of induced solitons in a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with birefringence cavity. Due to the cross coupling between the two orthogonal polarization components of the laser, it was found that if a soliton was formed along one cavity polarization axis, a weak soliton was also induced along the orthogonal polarization axis, and depending on the net cavity birefringence, the induced soliton could either have the same or different center wavelengths to that of the inducing soliton. Moreover, the induced soliton always had the same group velocity as that of the inducing soliton. They form a vector soliton in the cavity. Numerical simulations confirmed the experimental observations.